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Discovering the professional identities of researcher developers: roles, responsibilities and...
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Transcript of Discovering the professional identities of researcher developers: roles, responsibilities and...
Discovering the professional identities of researcher developers:
roles, responsibilities and representations
Dr Richard Freeman (UCL Institute of Education)Dr Anna Price (Queen Mary University of London)
Session overview
• Survey background• Theoretical background• Results:• Who is the typical researcher developer?• What do they do?• What do they want to do?
Survey: Background
• Vitae London Hub Steering Group• PTES, PRES, CROS & PIRLS – but what about
researcher developers?• Decided to create survey specifically for researcher
developers augmented with a selection of targeted interviews• Survey would need to have more open-ended
questions than usual to attempt to capture the variety of experiences (but not perfect!)• Used some CROS questions to allow comparison
Survey: Relevant TheoryWhitchurch, C. (2008), Shifting Identities and Blurring Boundaries: the Emergence of Third Space Professionals in UK Higher Education. Higher Education Quarterly, 62: 377–396. From the abstract: This paper … builds on a categorisation of professional staff identities as having bounded, cross-boundary and unbounded characteristics. [I]t describes a further category of blended professionals, who have mixed backgrounds and portfolios, comprising elements of both professional and academic activity. The paper goes on to introduce the concept of third space as an emergent territory between academic and professional domains, which is colonised primarily by less bounded forms of professional. ... Finally, it is suggested that third space working may be indicative of future trends in professional identities, which may increasingly coalesce with those of academic colleagues who undertake project- and management-oriented roles, so that new forms of third space professional are likely to continue to emerge.
Survey: practical matters• Used similar window to PTES/PRES/CROS/PIRLS• Used BOS• Total of 102 respondents from across the sector• Twelve respondents explicitly thanked us for
creating the survey• “Thanks for creating this survey. I look forward to
finding out the results”• We focused on researcher developers based within
institutions
Survey: Results – who is the typical RD?Category Typical Data
Gender Woman 77% female
Nationality British 90% UK
Age 30s 53% 30s
Ethnicity White 8% BAME
Qualification PhD 68% have doctorate
Background Science background 46% Science; 29% SocSci; 25% A&H
Survey: Results – who is the typical RD?Category Typical Data
Salary Earn £40,000 52% £35k-£45k
Contract Open-ended contract 90%
Time in post 5 years at current institution Average 4.7 years
RD Posts One institution as RD 77%
How categorized Role categorized as “Professional services” 58%
Line manager No formal line management responsibilities
63%
Budget Budget responsibilities 58%
Please indicate the groups for which you are responsible (please select all that apply). N statedGroup Primary Also support
Postgraduate research students 64 28
Research staff 67 22
Postgraduate research supervisors 29 49
Academic staff with responsibility for research staff
29 40
Masters students 5 29
Undergraduate students 3 9
Other staff 12 33
Other students 0 10
How we think we spend our time
How we think we’re perceived as spending our time
How we think we spend our time
How we think we’re perceived as spending our time
Actual and perceived use of time• Types of courses listed varied between actual and
perceived (more basic for the ‘perceived’ responses)• Frequently respondents listed more than three activities
in actual, and fewer than three in perceived. Narrower range of activities• The need to tell others in the institution was stressed for
the ‘perceived’ responses• Several derogatory comments from academics given
under perceived – “peddling soft skills”, “knitting yoghurt”• Comments indicating underappreciation
• Education level is higher than they believe is recognised• Time spent on admin activities
Compared to CROS & PIRLS
well-beingResDev CROS PIRLS
Satisfied with work-life balance 74 69 46
Institution promotes better health and well-being 78 51
Institution committed to E&D 94 86 86Opportunities to participate in decision-making processes (e.g. committees)?
83 46
Opportunities for promotion and progression? 32 34
Requests for flexible working? 78 67
Terms and conditions of employment (excluding any fixed-term nature of contract)?
81 54
Compared to CROS & PIRLS
training and development ResDev CROSAccess to training and development opportunities? 90 83
Opportunities to attend conferences and external meetings?
94 77
Appraised in last two years 87 67You are encouraged to engage in personal and career development?
90 75
You take ownership of your career development? 93 88
You have a clear career development plan? 46 52
You maintain a formal record of your continuing professional development activities?
70 56
You use the Vitae Careers Framework for Researcher Developers (CFReD) {CROS RDF} to support your continuing professional development activity?
15 10
Career aspirationsNext step Long term
Not sure 16 17None/ no response 6 20Increase seniority 27 19Continue to develop 15 6Freelance 5 10Retire 7 4Academic 3 8Personal fulfilment 0 7Sideways move 5 2Leave HE 6 0Study 3 0Travel 2 0Create new role 1 1
Qualifications
Professional distinctions
Have Working towards
Coaching 21 6
HEA/ PGCAP 20 9
Teaching/ education 16 4
CIPD 10 2
Psychometrics 5 0
Other professional distinctions:HR qualifications, Chartered status, NLP practitioner, careers qualifications, communication qualifications, MBA, counseling qualifications, project management qualifications, FRSA, ARMA, languages
Highest level of education
Undergraduate degree 7
Other PG degree 4
Masters degree 20
Doctoral degree 69
(Postdoc/academic 53)
Challenges
• Waiting for jobs to be advertised/ opportunities to become available• Scarcity of promotion opportunities• Lack of clarity on career progression options and
what is needed to pursue them• Need to move between institutions to advance• Wish to research/ publish
Good news! • Enthusiastic, emerging profession• Keen to develop themselves and others• Freedom within the role
Good news! • Enthusiastic, emerging profession• Keen to develop themselves and others• Freedom within the role
Not so good news! • Freedom within the role… ignored/misunderstood• Unclear progression/promotion paths